Welcome To My Page!
Hello! My name is Liza - I am a passionate artist and aspiring storyteller. I love working with others and using my creative mind to help out.

Hoodie Character Rig
Made in Maya and Substance Painter for my thesis film.

Liza Kochan
3D Generalist - ready to learn and create!

3D Still Life
Modeled and textured in Maya and Substance Painter.
About Me
I enjoy and an skilled in all aspects of the pipeline: animating, rigging, modeling, concept art - you name it. You can rely on to do any job quickly and well!
I have a strong work ethic and a passion for learning and am always working on my skillset.
My Goals
In my daily life I strive to improve my artistic and spiritual discipline.
Each day I remind myself of the coming internships and job opportunities I need to prepare for.
In the far future I would like to open a school where I can teach digital media after working in the industry.
My Skills
Maya, Substance Designer, Houdini, ZBrush, Substance Painter, Photoshop, Illustrator, After Effects, Premiere, Dreamweaver.
Animation, Character Rigging, Texturing, UVing, Modeling, Rendering, Drawing, Painting, Russian (Fluent), Japanese(Learning), Guitar, Saxophone.
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Hoodie Character Rig Tour
3D Work
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Personal Project - Baba Yaga's House
3D Work
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Thesis Short Film
3D Work
Laundry Day - My Animated Thesis Film
This is my first animated short film! I was responsible for practically everything: writing the story, designing the cloth characters, making their rigs, creating the environment, animation, effects, and rendering. This was a very difficult but awesome experience, and I hope you enjoy the result as much as I do. The boy rig is CGTarian's Ray. Music is "On Eggshells" by Richard Canavan
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Full Character Cloth Simulation
FX Work
Full Character Cloth Simulation
I was challenged to use someone else's animation and give the character an outfit. It was a big challenge and took roughly two weeks of trial and error, but I'm very happy with the result and can definitely say I learned a lot. The character and animation I found on Mixamo; the character's boots are from Turbosquid, and the rest I modeled, textured, and simulated myself using Maya's nCloth.
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Thesis Animation - Room Environment
3D Work
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Substance Designer Art Test
3D Work
Substance Designer Art Test
I had an opportunity at Caterpillar to test out for their new Substance Designer/Texture artist position. Over the course of three days, I had to create five textures which demonstated my artistic skill, problem solving and risk taking. These included an ornate mosaic tile floor, broken concrete wall, work painted metal, tire rubber, and muddy dirt road. I was very pleased with the results!
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Caterpillar Art Test
3D Work
Caterpillar Art Test
The art test I created as part of my application process for my current 3D generalist position at Caterpillar. Over the course of 3 days, I had to create an alternator based on a few images that were provided for me. This was my first time creating such a complex inorganic project, and it was a very valuable experience! I used Maya to model, Substance Painter for the textures, and rendered the final result with Arnold.
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Animation Reel
Animation
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Little Girl Character Rig
Animation
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Houdini Shatter
FX Work
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NSAC Campaign Work
3D Work
NSAC Campaign Work
In the spring semester of 2019, I took part in the National Student Advertising Competition as part of the art team, which handled all the visuals in creating an advertising campaign for Wienerschnitzel. I wore many hats on the team; I handled the 3D model, lighting, and some textures of the Wienerscnitzel building, created the promotional box in 3D and animated it, storyboarded, made and animated vector graphics for presentation slides, and created Photoshop compositions.
According to the judges, the visuals of our presentation were strong enough to place 3rd in our district, even though the campaign itself completely rebelled agaisnt the prompt.
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Toy Still Life
3D Work
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Sketchbook
2D Work
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Personal VisDev Project - Blue Sky
2D Work
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NSAC Motion Graphics
Animation
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Character Design - OBB
2D Work
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Houdini Waterfall
FX Work
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Environment Painting
2D Work
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Chair Model
3D Work
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Digital Portraits
2D Work
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Fullbody Character Paintings
2D Work
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Houdini Smoke Project
FX Work
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Dwarf Sculpt and Hair
3D Work